Elmo in the park party!

Charlie loves Elmo and he loves being at the park.  What better way to celebrate turning 4 than with his two favorite things - Elmo and a park.  Throw in some friends and family, a yummy Elmo cake, ice cream, and a beautiful day and the only thing that could make this party any better would be if Elmo himself showed up!  Yep - we had that covered too!  Happy 4th birthday my sweet and amazing boy!

Party hat and favor bags filled with treats and fun little goodies.  I made both to match the Elmo theme:

Elmo, Elmo, Elmo!

The Elmo is RKT covered in fondant. 

Elmo (Bryan from Spark of the Party) was absolutely fantastic and so animated!  He was so much fun for the children, climbing on the playscape, playing with the kids, looking at gifts, swinging the kiddies around.  I highly recommend Bryan for anyone looking for a character rental in CT.  This was truly one of the best days of Charlie's life so far,  in large part due to an awesome Elmo coming to his party!

 

Jack's first birthday polka dot chevron stripe cake!

It's been a whole year of happy delights, pat-a-cake days, and snug-a-hug nights since you and your sweet little peekaboo face made the world a more wonderful, giggle-filled place! Happy Birthday Jack!! xoxox

Here is little Jack's cake:

The bottom tier is carrot cake with white chocolate coconut cream cheese buttercream. Middle tier is one layer of dark chocolate fudge and one layer of almond with vanilla buttercream.  Top tier is dark chocolate fudge with orange buttercream.
Yum!!

 

The little guy wasn't sure what to think of it. He did eventually dig in and then promptly fell asleep afterwards.

Jack's smash cake with the party cake.  Surprisingly, nobody noticed that the smash cake was backwards in this pic.  Opps!

Noah's Ark

This cake was for a Jewish Naming Ceremony for two beautiful little boys, hence the Mazel Tov wording.  I made the animals by hand from gumpaste. The cake is a chocolate fudge cake with vanilla buttercream and covered in fondant.  The top part of the ark(the second tier) is RKT covered in fondant.  So happy with how this turned out!  I think it might be my favorite cake creation yet!
Here are the pics - enjoy!

Sprinkle cake with bunting

My 3 yr old little guy had his first tap dancing recital this weekend.  He and the other preschool age tappers danced to a song about ice cream.  We celebrated his big show afterwards with a sprinkle cake.

\

 and this post wouldn't be complete without a picture of my little guy tapping!  This is from the dress rehearsal:

Elmo and Cookie Monster Cupcakes (and 'how to' info)

I needed to make something for an MS fundraiser and my almost 4yr old suggested we incorporate Elmo and Cookie Monster into whatever we made.  So, Elmo and Cookie Monster cupcakes!

These were incredibly easy and are perfect for a toddler baking project! 

If you want to re-create them, here is what you'll need:

Cupcakes

Food coloring - blue and red and black and orange

Chocolate chip cookies

Wilton white candy melts

Frost some cupcakes with red frosting and some with blue frosting.  Add the wilton candy melts for the eyes, add some black eyeballs, orange nose and black mouth for elmo.  Break a cookie in half and use that for the mouth for cookie monster. That's it!!  Done!

the Butt Cake

Not sure what to say about this one, other than it is a butt cake.  The idea for this cake actually started out as a joke - a hilarious birthday cake for a friend of my hubby's.  When I mentioned that I could really do a butt cake, it was a joke no more.  For anyone who wants to re-create, message me on Facebook (sweet celebrations) and I'll provide you with 'how to' info. 

Here it is in all it's naked glory:

Garden Cake

This was a surprise 60th bday cake for a guy who loves Hawaiian shirts, is a U of Miami fan (hat), loves to read, is an avid gardener, is a world traveler (book-"Europe"), studies brain mapping (book title) and just planted a Sequoia tree from seed (the little seedling and sign in the garden says Sequoia). Phew! Got all that incorporated.

12x12 carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  YUM! 

 

Tiffany Blue Bling Cake!

Just a few pictures of the cake I put together for my own birthday!   Each tier is covered with fondant.  The bottom tier has buttercream stenciling, middle tier has fondant ruffles and satin ribbon, top tier is fondant with buttercream dots.

The bottom tier is a dummy.  Believe it or not, dummy tiers are harder to work with (for me at least) because they are so light and slide around.  I suppose that could be avoided by adhering it to a cake board, but that wasn't possible with this stand.

Here are the pics.  When we take it apart I'll take some pics to show the inner supports.  Planning to put a stacking tutorial up on my facebook page soon (SweetCelebrations).

Ravens Nation!

Typically, I'm not a football fan.  However, my hubby's cousin Chris is on the stunt team for the Ravens and after something like 7 years cheering for them, they're going to the Super Bowl!  So, I'm REALLY hoping the Ravens win.  Hubby and I have a Super Bowl party tonight and I made this cake to bring. 

Let's Go Ravens!!

This cake is 4 layers, two are an almond sour cream  flavor and two are a chocolate fudge flavor.  It is filled with my signature cookie cream filling (which tastes like Oreos).  I iced it with vanilla buttercream and covered in fondant.  All the details are made from fondant.  The grass is buttercream.  The face mask is gumpaste. 

This is my second carved cake ever and I think it turned out..well...AWESOME.  I owe some of the success to all the other cakers who have shared how-to pics, so to pay it forward, I'm posting pics of the process and instructions on my facebook page later (sweetcelebrations).

Take a look:

rib-bit rib-bit Froggy Birthday Cake

Happy 2nd Birthday Megan!!  Froggy Birthday cake.  Vanilla sprinkle cake with vanilla buttercream, covered in vanilla fondant.  Froggy and decorations are fondant, as well.  The whole thing is edible.

Nemo Under the Sea Cake

This was such a fun cake! Nemo and all the sea things are made from fondant. Almond cake with chocolate buttercream filling, covered in fondant.

 

 

.

Happy Holidays from Sweet Celebrations!

4 layers of chocolate cake, layered with ganache filling,

frosted with peppermint buttercream frosting and covered in fondant.

The snowman is made from fondant, too...everything you see is edible!

Happy 1st Birthday Parker!

I woke up yesterday morning and decided that I was going to try to make a first birthday cake for my friend Melissa's little guy, who is turning 1 in a few days.  Another impulsive and last minute cake idea.  Parker's birthday is the day after my due date and although his cake is a bit early, I didn't want to chance missing it.


Here are some pictures of Parker's teddy bear nautical theme cake.

Gumpaste Teddy with sailor hat!

Fondant waves around the base of the cake.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY PARKER!!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

My little guy and I whipped this together today for hubby's bday tomorrow.  Not too bad for such a rushed cake with no planning.  I initially was going to put "Happy Birthday Daddy" on the top, but I ran out of energy so I just went with "Dad". He'll still think its delish and he'll love it!

Chocolate fudge cake with raspberry buttercream filling and fondant.  This is actually my first fondant covered cake.   Usually, I do buttercream with fondant accents. 

Pink & Green baby shower cake

My sweet little boy is turning 3! (almost!)

We celebrated Charlie's 3rd birthday a bit early this year, figuring it would be easier to do with mommy 36 weeks pregnant than with a 3-ish week old (which seems somewhat impossible and which would probably mean no fancy cake and no fancy anything).  I still cannot believe that my sweet baby boy is turning three soon.  I heard once that when you are a parent, the days go slowly but the years fly by. 

So.Very.True.

Charlie is loving Thomas Trains these days, so a Thomas Train party it was.  We  decided to have his party at a local kiddie play area, which meant that I was just in charge of the food, cake and favors.   With pinterest and cakecentral as my starting points, the party planning started weeks ago.  It is safe to say that every minute of my time these past few weeks that wasn't spent working or preparing for the arrival of Charlie's little brother was spent on Charlie's party.   There were a LOT of late nights and early mornings working on Charlie's party, but I wanted every single detail to be perfect for him!  And, it is no secret that I love the cake making  and party planning and crafty parts of all this...
Here are some pics from Charlie's party:

       

  

Charlie's Cake!

4 tiers of chocolate fudge cake layered with vanilla buttercream and oreo cookie cream filling.

Yummmm......

I made this Sir Topham Hat our of gumpaste - so he is completely food safe (though rock hard)

              

  

The trees, hills, sun and tracks and tunnel are made from Satin Ice fondant.

The clouds and grass are made from buttercream.

The rocks are chocolate.

360 degrees of decorated train cake! 

And finally, singing Happy Birthday to our little boy:

 

Happy early birthday Charlie!  I never knew just how perfect life could really be until almost  3 years ago when you came into ours and I love you so much!